The PR Net Digital Event Recap: 'Marketing to Gen Z'

With a disposable income around $360 billion, Gen Z’s spending power is a key reason marketers must create dedicated strategies to reach, engage with and retain this discerning consumer segment. In this week’s webinar, we heard about strategies for reaching this target market from Larry Milstein, co-founder of Gen Z consultancy PRZM; Xander Tran, creative strategy director at influencer and experiential marketing agency New Moon; and Leslie Bishop, Executive Vice President of Global Strategy at 5WPR. 

The takeaways:

• Include them! Create marketing strategies with Gen Zers on your team (or through surveys, collecting data, etc.) to avoid missteps
• Where millennials’ social media is very curated, Gen Z is more chaotic and emotional. They love humor and brands that are playful
• Offer audiences a connection and something to rally around, as microfans (very niche) accounts are growing
• When storytelling, give Gen Z ‘bread crumbs’ to create their own TikTok trends or meme content with
• 86% of surveyed Gen Z says product quality is most important when purchasing something
• Brands should know it is okay to grow slowly, nurture most loyal fans and customers, loyal customers can become most vocal critics, let the fans help build your brand
• Brands should have confidence to stop leading their social channels with product, and instead engage by providing something of value (entertainment, education, etc.)
• Reddit is a treasure trove of insights (can see what people are saying about your brand)
• Gen Z trusts word of mouth and the advice of peers
• Gen Z creators on YouTube feel very intimate and trustworthy, feels like someone is your friend but have never met them, and ads don’t seem cringy when you trust the creator
• TikTok is certainly king for Gen Z, but it needs to be done right. Brands shouldn’t be salesy or buy into content trends just because they’re going viral. Timing is everything (don’t be late to a trend or you’ll come off cringe)
• Other platforms of note: Twitch, Discord, YouTube, Reddit, Instagram (more like a landing page than a storytelling channel for Gen Z, and IGs are growing because of TikTok popularity)
• Ideas for creating video: Evoke the feeling of FaceTiming with a friend. Doesn’t need to be very polished or curated (intentionally imperfect), better to feel organic and transparent
• Gen Z consumers like the idea of watching videos and absorbing education (like on Twitch) and how to do something. This seems more real and allows people to learn and build a community
• Foster the Gen Z creator community by paying creators on time and equitably. People share best practices now on the internet to educate others and make sure brands are being fair
• Brands need to understand the power of the partner, and should focus on building longer-term and more meaningful and sustainable relationships
• Tips for creators trying to align with Gen Z: the more niche the content, the wider the audience. Focus on your niche, something you really love, and post often
• TikTok is about community management, not just posting content. The comments section is a critical component to building a brand and where a lot of ideas / trends are born
• The future of the influencer market puts more value on genuine engagement than follower count (IG bots no longer cut it)
• Find people who are already talking about the brand who you aren’t paying, reward and see people who have been there since the beginning, do something bigger and better with these creators
• Don’t virtue signal. Gen Z has a good sense of when they are being lied to, and brands shouldn’t pretend to be something they’re not
• To show allyship/support for a cause, do things that are bold and brave (don’t just throw buzz words around). If you’re not going that far, it can benefit a brand to just stay quiet instead of being performative
• When brands make a mistake, Gen Z feels that they aren’t in the boardrooms, which is why problems can happen - because brands aren’t thinking about different perspectives. It’s important to have diversity at the very top
• Counsel culture is becoming more and more popular as brands are humanizing themselves. When mistakes happen brands should make it known what they are doing to fix the problem
• The community built online is very important, but Gen Z does want to interact IRL, too
• Create in-person spaces for the community. Facilitate an experience where people can just “be,” show up as themselves and not feel a social pressure. They want to connect through real experiences, not just Instagram-worthy events